Fahrradtour

Today, André and I took a bike tour to Brühl, which is about 20 km north of Bonn. It took about six hours, and you can see André is totally knocked out now.

We took a few pictures:

As you can see, we were chased by a fire engine in the middle of some beet fields and once got stuck in a Rotkohl field… but we made it to Brühl and its two castles: The Hunting Lodge Falkenburg is the smaller, white one on the picture with the impressive oak. The tree was more impressive than the castle! The bigger castle is called Schloß Augustusburg and is the main castle. It’s much bigger and has a beautiful garden.

I need to get a haircut!

Twentyfour hours in Weblogland

It’s taking shape… BEHIND THE CURTAIN: a day in the life of webloggers. – first draft/comment freely, please.

Garret came up with the idea yesterday: “we ought to all get together, agree on a day, and do a ’24 hours in the life of manila weblogs’ or something like that. share via photos where we live, what we do.”

Susan picked up the idea and started a survey to find out which day would be best.

Also, Al sort of started a participants’ thread on Garret’s discussion group. Go and post an answer if you are going to participate, too!

This is going to be fun!

By the way, Susan also pointed to A wrinkle in time, which is a similar project.

Der Zeit voraus?!



Oops, wie konnte denn das passieren?! Wahrscheinlich war ich gedanklich schon bei Twentyfour Hours in Weblogland…

Danke für den Hinweis, Jörg – machst Du bei den 24 Hours auch mit?

Der Jörg hatte auch noch diesen Link zu Zusatzstoffen online. Nützlich.

One more picture for today… I played around with PhotoShop.

Just a thought?!

Garret had an idea:

andrea has shots of the rhine. susan has sunsets. this gives me an idea … we ought to all get together, agree on a day, and do a ’24 hours in the life of manila weblogs’ or something like that. share via photos where we live, what we do. ah, just a thought.

I’d say this is a great idea! Let’s do it!

I rode my bike to the river Rhine today…

… and took a few photos. Enjoy! Click on any image to see a larger version.

By the way, Susan has great sunset pictures, too. (Scroll all the way down.)

British and American English

The Best of British – The American’s guide to speaking British. No, it’s not just an ad for the book, there are links to the categories (slang, people, motoring, clothing, around the House, food/drink, odds & sods) in the upper left corner.

Exploring the USA

Yesterday, Craig had lots of Route 66 links on BookNotes. On this page (which has really great photos, by the way), I found pictures of the Gateway Arch at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri. They have a very interesting website with lots of information on how the arch was built and about the tram system inside the arch. You can even take a look at the mathematical equation that was used to create the catenary curve shape of the Arch.

Oh yeah, and one additional Route 66 link: Harley Farms.

“On March 18th of this year 2000 Crossen Price Clevenger began a new life. He had already purchased a large tract of land in Arizona’s Painted Desert (“…a gun, and a pit bull with AIDS, too”), and sold his wood floor installation and maintenance business. On this date I had intended to help him transport his extra vehicle to the desert and get a peek at his new digs, which he has dubbed “Harley Farms.” Our dad was en route to his retirement paradise.

There are volcanos out there, and a giant crater left by a meteor that crashed into the earth. Rumours of jackelopes. It was obvious my 8 year old son Sam needed to come too! Sam’s uncle Craig then hopped on board; and brother Mick drove down from San Francisco on the spur of the moment too. Final brother Cory was also in town and spontaneously jumped. This made history, for our family: three generations of Clevenger men, accompanying Price via the Route 66 mother road to his well-earned misanthropic hermitage.”

Yes, I (and several fellow bloggers) have linked to the site before.

Sunny and warm

Yay! The summer is back. At least, the sun has been shining for over an hour, and the forecast says it’s going to be sunny tomorrow and on Monday as well. Also, we have at least 20°C (70°F).

I guess I should go outside and enjoy the weather instead of sitting at my des, pretending to work on my thesis and surfing the net instead…

Weblogs

Susan pointed to Weblogs – a history and perspective by Rebecca Blood.

Even later flip today…

There’s only about an hour left of the day. Oh well. I don’t really know why the day went by so fast.

This morning, I went to the library again and laid hands on the book I was looking for yesterday. They actually had it! In fact, they had two copies of it. One was in the reading room and available for everyone, but you’re not allowed to borrow it and take it home. The other copy, which you are allowed to take home, was in the Raritätenraum (“room of rarities”). But it seems the room is not called “room of rarities” because the books inside are so rare, but rather because access to the room is rare. It was locked and none of the staff (three PhD students) had a key. And the secretary, who has one, had a few weeks off. And the teachers who might have a key were not available either.

So I sat down in the reading room and read the book there. I wanted the book mostly because of one formula that is in it, so I copied it and went home. I guess I’ll have to go again and find someone with a key so I can take the book home for a while because a formula without context is not very useful.

In the afternoon I went to “downtown” Bonn for a math lesson and in search of Silly Putty. Because I had a train to catch, I had only time to check two stores, but they didn’t have it. I’ll try again next week. (Remember, shops in Germany are open from 9 am to 4 pm on Saturdays and are closed on Sundays. You can’t expect me to get up that early tomorrow! )

Silly Putty

No updates about Silly Putty in Germany yet (Weiß jemand, ob man das Zeug hier kaufen kann?), but it seems it was a favorite toy of some of my dear readers. I want to play with Silly Putty, too!

Late flip today…

I spent the afternoon in three different libraries in search for a book. The first two didn’t have it, and the third was closed. Why didn’t anybody tell me the math library closes so much earlier during summer break?

I’ll go back tomorrow and hope they’ve got the book I’m looking for. It came out in 1880 and was reprinted in 1966, but none of the online bookshops listed it, and it was not in the Libri database which lists all available books in Germany. I – need – this – book!

Das Buch heißt übrigens Vorlesungen über die Theorie der elliptischen Modulfunktionen (I und II) und ist von Felix Klein und R. Fricke. Und da drin finde ich hoffentlich die Ikosaedergleichung, an der ich letzte Woche vier Tage gerechnet habe. Irgendwie kamen mir Koeffizienten in der Größenordnung von Millionen doch etwas suspekt vor…

Hoaxes

I found this link to Hoaxbusters on /usr/bin/girl today. Useful bookmark in case anybody dares to send me this kind of chain letter ever again. A few months back, I got the Bill Gates hoax email twice in one day and couldn’t believe that anybody thought this was true! Next time I’ll know what URL to send them for an answer.

The Gates hoax was started in 1997. It’s unbelievable that people keep this going for years!

I usual answer email chain letters with this, which can also be found here.

Die Familie ist komplett

Heute sind Martins Sohn Raphael und seine Frau Sandra aus dem Krankenhaus entlassen worden.

Oh happy day!

Quote of the day

If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign? Albert Einstein

My desk is fairy cluttered.

A solid liquid?

I’ve just discovered Silly Putty. Sounds and looks like a lot of fun, even for grown-ups.

And the stuff is celebrating it’s 50th birthday this year. How come I’ve never heard of it before? Is this something every kid in the US knows and plays with?

And – is it available in Germany, too? I might want to buy some to do a few scientific experiments.

Ich suche schon, aber Hinweise, ob/wo man Silly Putty in Deutschland bekommt, nehme ich gerne entgegen!

And happy 17th wedding anniversary to Frauke and Scott!

Hey, it’s Al‘s birthday today! Happy birthday to you! And many happy returns! Keep getting wiser instead of older! ;-)

Alles Gute und viel Glück!

Today’s top story in Germany

Die Regierung will Abgaben auf Computer erheben: zu lesen auf Seite 1.

Report: Germany plans ‘Internet tax’. (Link via array.)

The tax is intended “to ensure that the authors of cultural products available on the Internet are properly rewarded.

Similar levies already exist in Germany on devices whose main function is that of copying, such as scanners, photocopiers and fax machines. Depending on the power of the machine involved, the taxes range from 75-600 marks ($30-$275).”

This might increase the prices for computers about 30%. I wonder if people will then buy their computers abroad – which is quite easy nowadays, thanks to the internet.

Spicy Noodles

André has finished his redesign of Spicy Noodles. On his site, a random photo from our Trip to the USA 1999 is displayed, complete with a link to the appropriate page of the journal on my site.

André says his goal for September is to post something every day.